When Johnny Depp commits to a role, he goes all out. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the man behind the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and Depp's newest film, The Lone Ranger, recalls how Walt Disney Studios ''freaked out'' when they saw Depp's unexpected look for Captain Jack Sparrow and accused him of trying to ruin that movie. Four films and $US3.5 billion later, there was no debate when Depp presented them with a photo of his take on Tonto, his face covered in white make-up with black stripes and a dead crow on his head.

''They had a lot more confidence this time that he had a sense of what his character should be and that's why you hire him, because he's so inventive and comes up with unique characterisations for what he wants to play,'' Bruckheimer says as he sits in a quiet corner at a Santa Fe ranch, near the New Mexico locations where some of the film was shot.

Bruckheimer says he first approached Depp about the Tonto role while he was playing another quirky character, the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. ''Later, Johnny gave me a photo of this Tonto character and I looked at it and said, 'This is amazing, who is this guy?' and he said, 'It's me!'''

In The Lone Ranger, an old Native American warrior who calls himself Tonto (Depp) tells a young boy the story in flashback of how Texas lawman John Reid (Armie Hammer) was transformed into a legend of justice and how they became the most unlikely heroes in the Wild West, fighting greed and corruption.

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The characters were created in 1933 for a radio program that became a national phenomenon, inspiring the successful TV series starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels that ran from 1949 to 1957, feature films, comic strips, graphic novels and video games.

But with Depp on board as star and producer and relative unknown Hammer in the usual ''leading man'' role, this reboot focused on Tonto as the brains behind the duo. Bruckheimer, who turned a Disney ride into the record-breaking Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, was not intimidated by adapting such iconic material. ''It takes talented writers, because you don't get great actors unless you have great source material,'' he says. ''If I asked Johnny to do a movie about a theme park ride or play an Indian sidekick in an 80-year-old story, he'd throw me out of his office.''

A still from the 1950s TV series The Lone Ranger, starring Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto.

Being faithful to the origins of the story meant adopting the original ''creed'' of the Lone Ranger - that he never kills anybody and rarely uses a gun - but Bruckheimer adds, ''we just took that and built around it to make Tonto his equal''.

The 50-year-old Depp looks like a character in his own movie when he arrives at the Sante Fe ranch to chat, his hair cut and spiked in a youthful look that offsets his serious dark glasses. He's wearing a pinstriped vintage vest over a white shirt and jeans and an assortment of silver and beaded Indian-themed necklaces, bracelets and rings that few men could get away with.

Nursing a non-alcoholic beer - something the publicly sober actor is eager to point out in case he's accused of falling off the wagon - he lights up when talking about his own relationship with the legend and why he also responded to making Tonto the leading man.

''I watched the series as a kid, religiously, but what fascinated me was that I had a sense, even as a child, that there was something wrong with the red guy having to 'do this' and 'fetch that' and be the sidekick, and I wondered why the white guy was so prevalent and adored,'' Depp says.

''That thought has been with me for a long time, and also, because I spent a great amount of time with Marlon Brando hearing about his undying passion for the rights of the Native Americans, I just thought it was an opportunity to right the wrong and show Tonto as an equal.''

Depp shows off two new tattoos on his much-inked arms - a lightning bolt on his hand that began as a temporary tattoo for the Tonto character and an oval-shaped symbol on his wrist acknowledging his honorary induction into the Comanche Nation Indian tribe.

''They gave me an ancient name, Mah-Woo-Meh, which means shape-shifter,'' he says proudly. One of Hollywood's most famous shape-shifters - his diverse credits include Edward Scissorhands, Pirates of the Caribbean, Sweeney Todd, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Public Enemies and Dark Shadows - downplays his much-publicised fall from a horse during filming, captured on video and posted online. Director Gore Verbinski described it as ''probably one of the most scary moments I've ever had, because I genuinely thought his head was crushed and we lost him'', but Depp nonchalantly brushes aside the wound that left a hoof print on his ribs and a lot of pain.

''I consider myself lucky the horse seemed to go out of his way to avoid crushing me and saved my life, in a way,'' he says.

Bruckheimer, who is currently prepping the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film with Depp, describes him as ''a great father and family guy who takes his kids to school every morning''.

Depp's reputation for visiting sick children and showing up for fans is famous and not, according to the producer, an exaggeration.

''I remember we were filming in a tiny mining town in Colorado and he'd been up since 5am, but when we finished at 8pm he went to city hall, set up a little table and signed autographs for everybody in that little town - nobody does that!'' he marvels.

Depp is also typically humble when asked how he finds time for the hospital visits in character as Jack Sparrow and phone calls to sick children.

''It's everything to me,'' he says with genuine emotion.

''Why else am I here? When word comes to me that there's a person somewhere in need of boosting, you give them a little boost, and there's never not any time for that kind of thing.''

THE LONE RANGER

Genre Western action

Critical buzz The early word is that Depp will help deliver huge box-office results and a new franchise for Disney. But the jury is still out on whether this remake will work for critics.